E00891: Greek inscription with an invocation of God followed by the names of four Archangels: *Michael (S00181), *Gabriel (S00192), *Istrael (S00690), and *Raphael (S00481). Found in the territory of Hierapolis (Phrygia, west central Asia Minor). Probably late antique.
Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocation
Source
A slab found by William Mitchell Ramsay in 1888 at Thiounta, near Hierapolis (Phrygia, central Asia Minor). Ramsay gives no description of the object.
Discussion
The inscription begins with an invocation of God, followed by five letters alpha and the names of four archangels. Ramsay supposed that the alphas stood for five abbreviated words ἅγιος and that each of them should have corresponded to an archangel, so one of the figures was missing. One can, however, interpret them as quasi-magical invocations or erroneously enumerated vowels corresponding to heavenly spheres that were often associated with archangels. For a similar case, see E00810 (Miletos, Caria / Karia, western Asia Minor).
Bibliography
Edition:
Ramsay, W.M., Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, vol. 1, part 2: West and West-Central Phrygia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1897), 541, no. 404.
Inscriptiones Christianae Graecae database, no. 1117: http://www.epigraph.topoi.org/ica/icamainapp/inscription/show/1117
Further reading:
Halkin, F., "Inscriptions grecques relatives à l'hagiographie, IX, Asie Mineure", Analecta Bollandiana 71 (1953), 330-331.